Children's author Ron Roy was born in Hartford, Connecticut on April 29, 1940. After high school, he joined the Navy for two years. He received a B. A. in literature from the University of Connecticut and a Masters degree in teaching from the University of Hartford. He was an elementary school teacher for many years. His first children's book, A Thousand Pails of Water, was published in 1978. Soon afterwards, he stopped teaching and became a full-time writer, but he still visits schools around the country. He is the author of the A to Z Mysteries series and the Capital Mysteries series. He currently splits his time between Connecticut and Florida.
Author and illustrator John Steven Gurney grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and drew caricatures on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the summers. While in college, he won a national poster contest for Molson's Golden Ale which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. It was seen by the art directors at Ariel Books and led to his first picture book assignment. He is the illustrator of over 100 children's books including all of the titles in The Bailey School Kids and The A to Z Mysteries series. His illustrations have also appeared in children's magazines like Cricket, Babybug, and Ladybird as well as non-children's… magazines like TV Guide and National Lampoon. He also illustrated the board game Guess Who for Milton Bradley. He currently lives in Brattleboro, Vermont with his wife and two children.